The Waters of Lethe
Disclaimer: I don't own FMA, I just like to play around in its world and torture Ed for awhile.
Author's note: post series, some movie events may happen,but differently
Warning: violence,blood,death and maybe sex.
Beta: Took-baggins
68: The Caretaker
Sergeant Willi Braun was a man of action.
Why he'd been placed on desk duty was both a mystery and an insult. He wanted to be out in the field, bawling commands at troops instead of herding papers indoors. Yet here he was, filling out requisition forms for toilet paper and tent stakes. After completing one form, he looked over at the IN basket that overflowed with a pile of staggering height. Willi dropped his pen and flexed his aching fingers, sat back in his chair and blew out a long breath.
Boooorrriiinnnggg!
For perhaps the twelvth time that morning, he grunted his displeasure at his change in fortune. His comrades had come by yesterday about lunchtime to conplain about their lot in life. While he got to loll around indoors, they had to sweat outside and dig defensive earthworks all around the city of Lior. It was hot and dusty work, doubly frustrating because of the sandy nature of the soil.
The pilots of the scout planes sent out three times a day had reported sighting a long train pulled by four puffing steam engines headed their way. Hundreds of heads had poked out of passenger car windows when they passed over, plus the pilots counted many shrouded artillery pieces tied down on flat cars.
The enemy was coming.
Time to get ready for battle.
But he was stuck inside,listening to his muscles soften. Sergeant Braun would never admit it to the others, but he longed to be out there with them. When the front door of Thule headquarters opened, he looked up with anticipation, hoping against hope Grupenfuhrer Bauer would finally spring him from this prison.
But no such luck. Instead of his group leader, the visitor was that damn woman, Fraulein Thomas. The so-called Holy Mother. Sergeant Braun couldn't help the sneer plastering itself across his face. What self-respecting woman had pink in her hair for God's sake?
He opened his mouth to say something cutting, then snapped it shut again when he saw she wasn't alone. Right behind her came Mayor Armstrong. Despite the civilian clothes he wore, Braun could tell a former military man a mile away.
He had the bearing,the attitude,the look. He had killed in battle, the smell of death wrapped around all soldiers who'd seen battle was ineradicable.
Out of respect for the Mayor,Braun held his tongue. Yet he frowned at the third person who'd come in behind the Mayor, hidden by his bullk. A tall,thin youth casually dressed in dark pants,a black short sleeve top and over that,an unbuttoned green shirt. He had a mass of hair the color of warm caramel tied in a long , but neatly trimmed ponytail that cascaded down his back, swinging as he walked.
Still, Braun could feel the sneer re-plaster itself on his face. Proper boys did not wear their hair long like girls, nor dress in such a sloppy manner. How he despised these Shambalans.
"Yes, Fraulein? How may I help you?" Braun put as much cold rudeness into his voice as possible. At every opportunity, the Shambalans needed to be shown who was in charge.
The briefest flash of irratation shot across Rose's face before she forced her lips into a pleasant smile.
"Fraulein Eckart requested I supply a caretaker for the Rocketeer and the-ah- Puppet. May I introduce this boy," she took the boy by the arm and led him closer before she pushed him forward. " his name is Alphonse Rockbell."
Alphonse gave Braun a weak smile before he ducked his head, because the invader's cold grey eyes made him intensely nervous. His heart pounded like thunder in his chest,and it amazed him the Sargeant couldn't hear it. If this worked, he would see Brother again.
There were so many thing he wanted to tell him.
I love you.
I missed you.
I can't remember...
So many things he wanted to ask him.
Where have you been?
What happened after we tried to bring mom back?
"BOY!!"
Alphonse jumped when the word cracked out like a whip. His fault for not paying attention, for daydreaming about the day he would find Edward. He pushed the daydreams to the back of his mind and tried to pay closer attention to the barrel-chested man in the grey uniform.
Braun loomed like a wall in front of Alphonse who very properly trembled as if in fear. But the truth was, Alphonse was still a bit excited. After he'd spoken to Rose and that huge man, she'd whsiked him inside the cafe, and then to a small room upstairs.
Here she'd sketched out for Alphonse what had occurred a week ago. At the news the invaders had Edward imprisoned just across the street, he'd jumped up from his chair. Only to be returned to the wooden seat by the huge bald man.
Alphonse looked up at him with an angry glare. He wanted to run down the stairs and across to the Mayor's House. He would burst in and find Edward, and then he would...
"Do what, Alphonse?" Rose's sarcasm was cutting, as if she read this thoughts. "If the guards didn't shoot you dead on the spot, they would arrest you and toss you in jail. Lior is no longer free Alphonse. For the moment, we must be very careful."
The dismay must have been writ large on Alphonse's face because the large bald man suddenly lifted him out of the chair and into a bone-crushing hug.
"ALPHONSE ELRIC! HOW NICE IT IS TO SEE YOU BACK IN YOUR BODY! BUT HOW SAD YOUR BROTHER IS A PRISONER OF THOSE HEARTLESS INVADERS! TOGETHER WE SHALL FREE HIM AND..."
Alphonse squawked in alarm and he drummed his heels against Alex's legs as his need to breathe became acute. He supposed the pink sparkles were a symptom of oxygen debt. Who was this man and how did he know him and Edward?
"Mayor Armstrong! Get a hold of yourself!" The plan Rose was hatching would come to naught if Alex suffocated Alphonse.
She finally got through to the overwrought alchemist and he set Alphonse gently back down on the chair. The boy closed his brown eyes and breathed a large chunk of air in gratefully, and then breathed out slowly. In. Out. In. Out. Until his lungs stopped aching.
"Feel better, Alphonse?" When the boy nodded, Rose smiled again and puffed out the breath she'd been holding. "Okay, this is the plan I've come up with..."
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Alphonse trudged up the stairs behind Sargeant Braun, his heart pounding so loudly, he still was conscious of a vague surprise no one else could hear it. He'd been accepted as caretaker of the two prisoners and the success of Rose's plan was all up to him now. He clenched his fists as he climbed, and silently vowed not to fail.
He eyed the Sargeant's broad back, it was even wider than Alphonse was and the grey material strained to cover bulging muscles. When the time to rebel came, he would have to be sure he wasn't in Braun's reach, the man looked strong enough to break him in two. Alphonse was so lost in thoughts of the future, he stumbled on the topmost step and nearly fell flat on his face.
"Watch it, boy," the Sargeant's voice grumbled in his chest like faraway thunder, causing Alphonse to blush, duck his head and stammer an apology. Braun removed a ring of keys from his belt and unlocked a wooden door directly across from the stairway, turned the knob and pushed the door open.
"This prisoner is Alfons Heidreich, the Rocketeer. He doesn't speak your language, but he can pretty much care for himself. Your only duties will be to take up meals and whatever materials he requests, and keep his room clean. Go on in and say hello."
Head still bowed, Alphonse stepped over the threshold before raising his gaze to the thin blond man who'd stood up from a desk by a wide window. He gasped and stopped dead in his tracks, and heard an answering gasp from the Rocketeer. It was like looking at a photographic negative of himself.
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Braun was speaking to him in German, but Alfons only had eyes for the boy who'd been appointed his "caretaker". With a few differences in style of clothing, length and color of hair, and color of eyes, the boy was his doppelganger, a nearly exact twin.
Alfons gulped audibly. His grandmother used to tell him scary stories about doppelgangers, and how meeting one was a premonition of death. Fear froze him for a moment before his rational mind reasserted itself. Grossmutter also told him cats sucked the breath from babies, but he knew that wasn't true. He took a deep breath and shook the hand of the boy, who Braun introduced as Alphonse Rockbell.
By the time their brief meeting was over, Alfons felt calmer than he'd had in a long time, he even felt a small measure of happiness. Despite the language differences, he felt they would become friends. He sat back down at his desk, already covered with blueprints and notes, and watched while Braun unlocked the door in the opposite wall. That was wise of him, because The Puppet was kept in that room, and Alfons still planned to kill him.
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Blood pounded through his veins and set up a cacophony in his brain, Alphonse could barely contain himself after the knob was turned and the door swung open. He had this urge to shove Braun aside and run to his brother, throw his arms around him and hug the stuffing out of Edward. Alphonse bit the inside of his cheek to bring this rebellious urge under control until the Sargeant finally moved aside.
A lone figure in a chair was silhouetted against a twin to the wide window in the other room, the light coming through it making it a bit indistinct. The figure was absolutely still and a frisson of fear made Alphonse tremble briefly. The other man had stood up in an instant, but Edward hadn't so much as twitched.
Braun leaned back against the window once they'd reached it, crossed his arms and looked at Alphonse,a smug smile upon his face. "Don't bother talking to him, boy, he won't respond. Or rather he can't. We keep him under control with a special drug. Otherwise, we couldn't handle him."
Alphonse breathed shallowly through his mouth, because he was so overwrought he was afraid he'd throw up. Six long years he'd waited to see the smiling face he loved so much, and...
His brother sat still as a statue in a wooden chair, he was neatlly dressed in a white shirt under a dark green figured vest, and pants of a paler green. His gloved hands were folded in his lap, and his head was slightly bowed, as if contemplating them. Edward was older, the planes of his adult face had emerged from the roundness of childhood, and his blond hair was far longer than Alphonse remembered. His eyes were closed and he appeared to be asleep, until Braun barked in a loud voice that made Alphonse leap fully an inch off the floor, "WAKE UP!"
Alphonse gasped in horror when Edward's eyes snapped open. They were as golden as ever, but glassy and staring, the eerie effect reinforced by the tiny pinpricks his pupils had shrunk to.
"We call this one the Puppet, boy. He can do some things like feeding himself, but you have to get him started first. You'll be responsible for bathing and dressing him, and making sure he looks presentable in case Fraulein Eckart or Dr. Mengele visit "
With a jerk of one thumb, Braun indicated the brown glass bottle upon the white marble top of a dark wood chest of drawers. "You must give him a pill twice a day without fail,because he's liable to come out of his trance if a dose is missed. Do you understand?"
Alphonse tore his eyes away from Edward long enough to nod at the Sargeant. "The two soldiers who were caring for him gave him a bath and washed his hair this morning,so he's good for today. It'll be lunch time in a few hours and the food will be brought up via a dumb waiter in the hall. Come here and I'll show you where."
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Alphonse had the routine down pat before lunchtime. When a bell rang out, he went out the hall door of his brother's room to a square wooden panel set into the opposite wall. It was set into what looked like a window frame, and had a handle carved into the lower lip.
Behind it was the dumb waiter, a small elevator in a shaft which extended from the kitchens in the basement to the topmost floor of the Mayor's house. A small platform attached to caster wheels set into metal guide tracks on the walls enabled it to move smoothly up and down. When the food was ready, the plates and bowls were put onto covered trays and loaded onto the platform. Then a kitchen worker pulled on a rope to move the platform upwards, a rudimentary system of lights on a wall panel told him the location of the platform after it moved up out of sight in the darkness.
When the platform reached the desired floor, the worker would tug the rope to lock the wheels in place and a bell dinged to signal the occupants on that floor dinner was served. Alphonse pulled up on the door and it slid smoothly to reveal three metal trays with lids of the same material. He took two of the trays to the room Edward was in before coming back for the third. This tray he set on a wheeled wooden cart before he reached into the shaft and tugged on another rope. This unlocked the wheels and he slowly lowered the dumb waiter back down to the kitchens until a voice floated up the shaft. "Got it! Thanks!"
Alphonse slid the panel back down until it closed, and then he wheeled the cart to the door of The Rocketeer's room. He dug into his right pants pocket for the key and unlocked the door before taking the cart inside. Alfons was still at his desk and he seemed to be working hard.
"Lunchtime!"
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Alfons reluctantly got up from his desk to eat lunch, despite the difficult circumstances, he'd had some ideas for improvements to the engines and he'd been busily working on the designs since yesterday. He linked hands together and stretched the kinks out of his back, groaning slightly when his shoulders popped, before he got up and came over to a small square table covered with a white cloth and one place setting. The caretaker swept the cover off the tray and Alfons frowned at his lunch. His doppelganger noticed the collapse of Alfon's expression and looked down. He also frowned.
"What is that?"
Pork hocks and sauerkraut with sides of mashed potatoes and cooked carrots. Good solid German food, the kind that stuck to one's ribs and kept one going all afternoon. Alfons smiled at his doppelganger's frown which had deepened into a scowl and he repeated the sentiment in German. The caretaker looked confused for a moment before his face suddenly brightened, as if an idea had suddenly struck him.
Now it was Alfons's turn to feel confusion when the boy picked up the offending tray and set it aside before he walked over to the desk and rummanged in the mess for a moment before returning with one of the many fountain pens there because Alfons tended to go through one a day at least. The doppelganger bent over the white cloth and he drew an intricate circle design with several intersecting lines before he replaced the tray right in the middle.
Alfons's blue eyes widened in surprise and not a little fear after the boy placed both hands on the edge of the circle because a yellow light rose like a curtain from the table and commenced to whirl as flashes of light like static shot into the air. A subtle humming noise, like a hive of contented honeybees accompanied the light show as the food on the tray began to melt and then rise up, contorting into swirled shapes as they did so.
It seemed to take a long time, but the transmutation was over in a moment, and Alfons stared in shock at his transformed lunch. The pork hocks and sauerkraut now were four thick slices of roast beef covered with a fragrant brown gravy, and the mashed potatoes were now a baked potato, brimming with butter and sour cream. Only the cooked carrots remained cooked carrots, but they'd regained their former bright orange color instead of the pale, overdone mess they'd been only a moment before.
Alfons sat down with a thump in a chair and gawked in utter amazement. Alchemy can do THIS too??!! Struck by a sudden inspiration, Alfons grabbed for the fork next to the tray and dug it into the baked potato, and he paused for a moment before putting it into his mouth. It LOOKED like baked potato mixed with butter and sour cream and it SMELLED like baked potato, butter and sour cream. He stuck it into his mouth and closed his eyes as if in reverence to the Food Gods.
It was delicious. And also very hot, so hot the inside of his mouth was burning. The caretaker heard the frantic noises of distress Alfons was making and he quickly poured a glass from the carafe that was always kept full of ice water on the table. Alfons grabbed the glass and he drank a few sips with gratitude. It was his fault for taking such a large bite and he gave the caretaker an abashed smile accompanied with a slight reddening across his cheekbones. He chewed and swallowed the mass before daring to speak.
"Danke."
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After Alphonse left the Rocketeer happily eating his transformed lunch, he went back out into the hall, relocking the door as he did so. He was disappointed to see Brother hadn't moved an inch, not even to investigate the smells coming from underneath the tray lids. Alphonse had a very dim memory of Edward never being late for a meal, plus wonderment at his considerable appetite. But in Edward's defense, he'd been a very active boy with an extremely fast metabolism who needed lots of fuel. Performing alchemy really took it out of him and Alphonse recalled even he was ravenous after a transmutation.
He also performed alchemy on their lunches, but into two heaping bowlfuls of beef stew, the way Mom used to make it. The mashed potatoes he turned into two small loaves of crusty bread, although he left the carrots largely unchanged. He went over to Edward. put one hand under his left elbow and said "Stand up" in a gentle voice and Edward slowly stood up, like a string-less marionnette. This made Alphonse shiver for some unknown reason, but he fought off the uncomfortable feeling and steered Edward over to the table and made him sit down.
He picked up the spoon and dipped up a small quantity of the stew before he moved it to Edward's lips.
"Open your mouth." Alphonse slipped the spoon inside and Edward promptly closed his mouth on it, although not tight enough he couldn't pull the spoon out. "Chew." He put the spoon into Edward's hand and watched him start eating on his own for a bit before he puffed out a breath and went around the table to eat his own lunch.
An hour later, he reversed the table cloth to hide the transmutation circle, no need for the Nazis to see that he could also perform alchemy. Alphonse then went over to his double's room and did the same after he collected the tray. When the Rocketeer smiled from his desk where he was back at work, Alphonse smiled back and held a finger to his lips. This is our secret.
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For fear the light would be seen shining through the windows, Alphonse was unable to transmute supper as well, but slices of roast turkey with cranberry sauce and sauteed asparagus weren't so bad. Before he cleaned Edward's teeth, Alphonse had to give him his second dose of the drug for the day. He glared at the dull brown pill in disgust, but it obstinately refused to shrivel away and disappear. It had a score line through the middle and Alphonse made a quick decision.
He snapped the pill in half, put one in his pocket and gave the other to Edward. After he'd swallowed it with a sip of water, Alphonse leaned in close to his brother and whispered quietly in his ear.
"Many years ago, Brother, you rescued me. Now I'm going to rescue you."
He brushed his lips across Edward's forehead before leading him to the bathroom to help him brush his teeth and wash his face. Finally, after he settled Edward into bed and told him to go to sleep, he opened the connecting door, poked his head through and wished the Rocketeer "goodnight" before relocking it. He set the lock on the main door to Edward's room and looked back at his brother. A shaft of moonlight lit up his face as he lay in an apparent deep sleep and as Alphonse watched, Edward groaned softly and turned over, his back to the window. Alphonse's throat tightened up and he closed the door quickly.
He kept his jaw set as he walked down the stairs, said "goodnight" to the guard at the front desk and walked across the street to the cafe where he'd met Rose and Alex just that morning, although it seemed an entire year ago. He nodded slightly, his jaw still set to the cafe owner who was closing up for the night and climbed the stairs to the small bedroom he'd been given to sleep in. Alphonse got ready for bed with mechanical motions, brushing his teeth, washing his face and using the toilet.
He pulled on a pair of fleece pajamas because Lioran nights were chilly, snapped out the light and crawled into bed, suddenly exhausted from a long and emotionally draining day. But he couldn't seemed to close his eyes and he laid under the blankets, his hands behind his head. The wait seemed to take half the night, but the tears came at last and he cried himself to sleep.